Students at an Iowa college [over t' pond in the US folks, where else] can forget the quintessential experience of pulling all-nighters at the library poring over stacks of books. For one thing, there's no library. For another, there are no books.

Instead of a library, the school has a resource center equipped with computer workstations that can access the Web, e-books and online journals. The resource center also houses several meeting tables, audio-visual materials and a few paper magazines -- but no books.

The school plans to be an entirely paper-free campus. Last year, about 75 telecommunications students participated in a pilot program to go paperless. Each student used a Compaq iPaq handheld to access e-textbooks, syllabi and class materials, and to take notes and exams.

This fall, the paperless program expands to include all technology courses and some business and liberal arts courses. All of the students concentrating in tech fields such as network administration and information technology are required to have their own handheld. Campus Dean Tony Paustian estimates that over half of the campus community will be totally paperless this fall.

"Hopefully within a year, we'll have the whole campus paperless," Paustian said.

The campus has its own wireless infrastructure. Faculty use smartboards, which work like giant touch screens for professors to jot notes. Students can download notes from the board to their handhelds.

Hmmm, I cut n pasted my way through several of my university assignments... heck I even d'led one from a US college site. This brings up whole new opportunities lol